"Around 1905, a man who did much for the Museum and was one of its first "associates", M. E. Boullet, banker at Corbie, decided to give to our institution his collection of Lepidoptera, offering in addition to helping with its inclusion in ours. Which one to choose? There was no competition. The Hesperidae, family for which there was, in Paris, a specialist in that order Mabille.

With the approval of M. Bouvier, we sat down to agree on a work plan. Classification, or more accurately, the establishment of the collection was taken up at the beginning, with the Papilionidae, and has continued since then as methodically as resources and materials of the service allow.

Mr. Boullet was paying a technician, charged exclusively with the preparation of butterflies; every month, I sent to Corbie a stock of specimens of the family being classified. These were returned me or reported on during the two or three days that he spent each month in Paris during which time we worked together." [1]